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I’m Sabrina. Nice to meet you!
I went into teaching because I (mistakenly) believed the hype about bad teachers in our worst-performing schools, and I wanted to Be the change I wished to see in the world. When I was rushed to the hospital after fainting from exhaustion in my classroom, I started to suspect that the situation might be more complicated than the conventional ed reform wisdom would have us believe. And when I was retaliated against for standing up for my students and my professional practice, I knew it was time to start speaking out.
I started this project to help shed light on the complex issues that face our most troubled schools. I believe that in order to have real education reform in this country, we need to get beyond the stereotyping (i.e. “Teachers are unqualified”), oversimplification (“All we need to do is…”), and political posturing that dominates so much of the current process. To me, that means we need to listen less to politicians and “the powers that be,” and more to real educators, parents, students and communities (also known as… the people who actually know what’s going on in our schools!). Given my love of language and communication, my specialty areas as a writer/blogger here include dissecting political speech and exploring media bias.
Since embarking on what was supposed to be a one-year detour from classroom teaching, I’ve been all over the country, speaking on panels, leading workshops, facilitating discussions, and listening to public school stakeholders who are concerned about the form and direction of current education policy. I also helped organize the Save Our Schools March, and my writing on education issues appears in various places, including The Huffington Post and the Washington Post‘s The Answer Sheet.
Still committed to aligning my work with my beliefs, I also serve as a communications and social media consultant to organizations and candidates who are committed to advancing democratic, equitable and evidence-based solutions to educational and social issues. And someday, when I grow up, I’d like to be a fourth-grade teacher (again).